Does hooliganism need to be tempered?

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There’s a saying that you may have heard of before.

‘There’s always one bad egg’.

Whilst for the most part, this is true, it shouldn’t mean that we have to accept it and move on.

When it comes to football fans, the saying remains relevant. Every club will have those that don’t care for crossing the line between friendly rivalry and genuine hate for one another.

We don’t even need to look at seasons gone by to find examples of when this occurs.

Aston Villa and Birmingham City are fierce rivals and this season, they faced off against each other in two West Midlands derbies in the English second division.

Villa claimed bragging rights in both contests, running out 4-2 winners at home in November and 1-0 winners at St. Andrews in March.

But the second match brought about one of the most disgusting acts we have ever seen on a football field.

Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish, with his back turned, was attacked by a Birmingham fan and copped a wild right haymaker that sent him crashing to the floor.

Fortunately, not only was Grealish unharmed by the attack, but he didn’t get up and try to exact revenge on the fan. The incident was quickly brought to a halt when Villa players and ground stewards stepped in and restrained him.

Grealish had the last laugh, scoring the winner and seeing his side home as victors. But it was a dark day for football, showcasing that some idiots that we thought were a thing of the past had slipped through the cracks.

Two more recent instances took place in the Champions League semi finals. After Ajax’s 1-0 win against Tottenham, some Spurs fans were seen throwing punches and beer bottles at Ajax fans in the middle of a London street.

Similarly, a few thousand kilometres west in beautiful Barcelona, some locals were attacked by Liverpool fans who, inexplicably, began dumping them into a nearby fountain.

Perhaps the most disgusting act of hooliganism seen this season was from the Southampton vs Cardiff City fixture earlier this year.

The match took place very soon after the extremely tragic death of Cardiff City signing Emiliano Sala, who died on a plane flight to Cardiff from former club, Nantes in France.

Sala’s death brought the football world together in mourning but for some, it was merely a chance to tear it open again.

In this video, a Southampton fan can be seen making plane gestures to the travelling Cardiff fans, a deplorable act which was met with much criticism online. Southampton have vowed to ban the fans who made these gestures.

Now, there’s no problem with being passionate about your soccer club. There’s also no problem with having fun on an away trip. But it’s these moments when people seem to just want to create problems and when that happens, it’s not good for anyone.

Granted, these hooligans don’t represent their club’s entire fanbase, but they do represent their club. These Liverpool fans can be seen laughing and mocking the local people of Barcelona and whilst they may feel they’ve done nothing wrong, they’re contributing to the image that their club has across the globe.

This isn’t solely aimed at these Liverpool fans either. Other clubs certainly do it and the same thing occurs to them.

Hooliganism can positively contribute to the soccer image across the globe. When done right.

There will always be one, two or maybe more who feel the need to commit such condemnable acts. But if clubs can start taking more serious action against these people, like Southampton did, it will demotivate those thinking of doing something similar.

It will show the club in a more positive light, show that they don’t stand for such acts and in general, it will allow hooliganism to adapt to the now and become, again, a more positive influence on soccer society.

All good things take time. But the more times we see such incidents, the more we wish we could hit the fast forward button into a time when these acts occur less.

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Caelum Ferrarese is a Senior journalist with Soccerscene. He reports widely on micro policy within Australasia and industry disruptions at grassroots level.

FIFPRO Asia/Oceania report on women’s Asian club experience

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Image credit: FIFPRO website

FIFPRO Asia/Oceania has published a report evaluating players’ experiences in the 2023/24 AFC Women’s Club Championship (AWCC).

The report, “Lessons from the AFC Women’s Club Championship,” compiles insights from 88 players across the eight clubs that participated in last season’s invitational tournament, representing teams are from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, India, and Iran. This competition acted as a precursor to the 2024/25 AFC Women’s Champions League, which kicked off on Sunday.

The report offers an in-depth look at players’ careers, backgrounds, and experiences in Asia’s continental club competition, while also analysing critical factors like professional status, pay, and working conditions.

The report also evaluates the AWCC format, scheduling, finances, and the 2024 AWCC final, providing crucial insights as the AFC Women’s Champions League prepares for its inaugural season.

Player Profile

FIFPRO Asia/Oceania serves as the sole international collective voice for professional footballers across Asia and Oceania, representing over 6,000 players through its 12 member unions.

Just 62% of these players identified as ‘Professional,’ while 32% classified themselves as ‘Semi-Professional,’ and 6% as ‘Amateur.’

While these labels are somewhat subjective, the survey revealed the real-life experiences of female players in Asian clubs:

  • One quarter (25%) reported that football was not their main source of income.
  • Fewer than half (42%) earned over $10,000 annually from football.
  • Less than a third (32%) committed at least 20 hours per week to football.
  • Fewer than a third (30%) reported receiving extra salary or bonuses for participating in the AWCC.

Players who aren’t full-time professionals must juggle football with other jobs, studies, or family duties. Only 9% of players reported that the AWCC didn’t interfere with their domestic football or other life commitments.

For the 16% who said the competition affected their non-football employment, it may have led to financial losses due to their participation in the tournament.

When AFC competitions, like the AWCC, interfere with domestic league schedules—as they did for 51% of players—the rescheduled domestic matches add to the difficulties female players face in managing their multiple commitments.

This doesn’t imply that Asian women players should be excluded from continental competitions; 85% of players from the 2023-24 AWCC expressed a desire to participate again. Players are eager to challenge themselves at the highest level and are willing to make sacrifices for the opportunity.

Working Conditions

All players rated the standard of accommodation as either somewhat good (46%) or very good (54%).

However, a quarter of players reported that local transport was either somewhat poor (20%) or very poor (7%), and 17% described the high-performance facilities as inadequate.

Several players from Group B in Tashkent noted that the accommodation was too distant from the playing arena.

Players who rated the facilities and transport as poor were most often from Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels (South Korea) or Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan). Conversely, those who rated them as very good were more likely to come from FC Nasaf (Uzbekistan), Bangkok WFC (Thailand), and Hualien (Taiwan).

These varying perceptions likely reflect the differences in expectations between the top women’s leagues in Asia and less advanced domestic competitions.

Reflecting on the report’s findings, FIFPRO Asia/Oceania Chair Takuya Yamazaki stated via press release:

“The AFC’s unilateral decision-making must change to ensure the success of continental competitions. We continue to recommend a genuine partnership between professional footballers, clubs, leagues, and the AFC, which is crucial to unlocking the potential of Asian football.”

Kathryn Gill, FIFPRO Global and Asia/Oceania board member, former Australia international, and 2010 AFC Women’s Player of the Year, said via press release:

“Whilst the potential of the women’s game in Asia is immense, we must ensure it is developed in a way that is responsive to the lived realities illustrated in this report. This can only occur through establishing a genuine partnership between the AFC, leagues, clubs and players, and not through unilaterally overlaying regulations that are fit for men’s competitions onto female competitions.”

Three Key Recommendations To Enhance Competitions 

A Collaborative Approach to Decision-Making

Eighty-one percent of surveyed players who took part in the AWCC believe that players should have more influence on AFC decisions, including those related to structure, scheduling, and financial aspects.

Higher Minimum Standards

AFC Women’s Champions League regulations should protect players from poor conditions and use the tournament’s influence to encourage professionalism throughout the continent.

Increased Visibility and Commercial Opportunity

As the commercial potential of women’s football continues to expand, the AFC needs to invest in boosting the visibility of women’s continental club competitions.

To read the full report in its entirety, click here.

NWSL’s groundbreaking CBA highlights ALW’s growing gap

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Mary Fowler - Women's World Cup 2023
Image credit: CommBank Matildas

The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has confirmed a major update to its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with players, effective until 2030.

This move to abolish the draft was expected with the NWSL competing with European leagues for talent and growing at an extraordinary rate, leaving them to focus more on player welfare.

Key changes in the new CBA include:

Draft System Abolished: The NWSL will no longer use a draft system, making it the first major U.S. sports league to do so. This means players will have more control over their team choices.

Revenue Sharing and Salary Cap: The salary cap will increase significantly, from $3.3 million in 2025 to at least $5.1 million by 2030. Players will also benefit from a new revenue-sharing model that ties their salaries to the league’s media and sponsorship income.

Improved Player Benefits: The minimum salary will rise from $48,500 to $82,500 by 2030. All player contracts will now be guaranteed. Additional benefits include expanded parental leave, childcare support, mental health services, and access to more health professionals.

Travel and Commercial Opportunities: Teams will have more charter flight options, and the league will commercialise player performance data. Players will also be more accessible to fans and media, and the number of games per season may increase.

Overall, these changes aim to improve player autonomy, compensation, and support while aligning the NWSL with global standards for women’s football.

Comparison to the A-League Women’s structure

The lack of professionalism in the A-League Women’s competition is a stark contrast to the NWSL’s incredible rise, and while it’s unfair to compare one for one in terms of money, the foundations of its success hinged on its ability to pay players properly in the early doors of its existence.

In the 2023/24 season, the minimum wage for ALW players increased to $25,000 by virtue of the extended season, which went to a full home-and-away schedule for the first time.

Players were typically contracted for 35 weeks for a 22-round regular season, with four extra weeks for finals, factoring in preseason training.

The PFA survey conducted an important survey at the end of last season which found many players unhappy with the pay disparity to the A-League Men’s, failing to provide enough remuneration for players to live.

In the survey, 66% of respondents said $60,000 a year would enable them to put 100 per cent focus into their football career whilst 3 in every 5 (60%) claimed to have a second job other than their football, 46% of the players who worked a second job put more than 20 hours in a week at their other occupation.

By contrast, only 15% of A-League Men players were doing some work outside of playing this season, and 93% of those worked less than ten hours per week.

This lack of professionalism has recently forced the hand of top ALW talent like Macey Fraser, Courtnee Vine and Charlotte McLean who all made the move this winter to the NWSL, leaving behind a fair drop in talent for the domestic competition.

A reminder that in the Matildas World Cup squad, every single player had started their career in the A-League Women’s competition, and it continues to lack the investment required to truly grow.

What is required for the sport to grow and for players to develop properly in this country is better standards for player welfare, giving top talent a reason to play domestically and growing the game in its own backyard.

Without this, the league will continue to be a stepping stone into Europe or the US with the talent pool suffering over here, which in turn stagnates the marketability of a league that should be growing rapidly following an incredible 2023 FIFA WWC.

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